May 28, 2002
It has been brought to my attention that I have been terribly remiss in providing all of you with photos of the charming Zeke. Please, allow me to rectify the situation: Zeke in extreme closeup! and Zeke in his swing!
It's 11:30 at night and I'm not sleepy, so I thought I'd post an update. I've come a long way since those first sleepless nights when I dove for the covers at the first sign of sleepiness from Zeke. I took the advice to "sleep when the baby sleeps" to heart, and Zeke and I napped together a lot in his first few weeks. Now he's settled into a more normal sleep routine, and I stay up well past his normal bedtime. He conks out around 10 or 11, most nights, and then I follow him to bed an hour or so later.
Today we napped on the couch again, partly because I wanted to snuggle up next to him and partly because I just needed a nap. I nestled him into the crook of my arm and fed him, and after a bit, he dozed off in a peaceful milk coma and I dozed off as well. After a bit, he sleepily opened his eyes and gazed up at me expectantly. I sleepily opened my eyes in turn, and hooked him back on, and then we both slept again for a bit. There is nothing I enjoy better than sleeping with my warm snuggly baby all curled up next to me. I think he likes it too.
Apartment hunting! Tonight Keith and I viewed a lovely townhouse in the Magnolia neighborhood of Seattle. The commute is a bit much, but we both thought it was a nice place. Of course, we have two years' worth of frustration centered around our current house, so pretty much any place looks good in comparison. We were wandering around the place yelling back and forth to each other, "Look! Carpeting!", and "Hey, the hot water works!", and "Bedroom doors! Awesome!" I think these are things that most people sort of assume will be included, because the landlady was looking at us a little funny.
We decided to go home and think on it, both because the commute is a bit much, because I think the living room is shaped funny, and because we don't want to get the first place we see. Keith noted several other places tonight from various apartment-finding websites, and he's going to call and set up appointments tomorrow. I want to be out of this house by fall, preferably by August. I thought we weren't going to be able to afford it, based on how much of a deposit we were required to put down on the last place we moved into. When I first moved to Seattle, Keith and I rented this place up in north Seattle, and they required us to pay first and last month's rent, PLUS a security deposit that was a full month's rent. So, we had to come up with three months' rent all at once. I then assumed that was standard for rentals in the area, so I thought we'd have to come up with thousands of dollars before being able to move. It turns out that most apartment landlords around here only charge a $300 deposit. Three hundred bucks we can manage, so it looks like Moving Day will be upon us before long. We just have to find the right place.
I can't really tell you how excited I am to be moving out of our current place. On the one hand, I will miss it in a lot of ways. I like the proximity of various shops, movie theaters, and such; I love our landlord; I like the secluded front yard. But I will not miss the splintering hardwood floors that make it impossible for me to let Zeke explore the living room like he wants to. I will not miss the kitchen faucet that only has hot water and not cold. I will not miss the bedroom that is so tiny our queen-sized bed (plus sidecar crib) takes up almost the entire length and blocks off the closet, which I might add is the only closet in the entire house. (Who designed this place?) I will not miss the dryer with the nearly-dead heating element that takes two hours to dry half a load of clothes.
Carpets! Working appliances! Bedroom doors! It's the simple things, really.